Beginning Again

I’ve let some things slide. I don’t make and sell my Donnie Jalapeno Salsa, anymore. It’s the best salsa that anyone has ever made, anywhere, and I owe the world my salsa (did that sound dirty?).

I don’t write, anymore. I used to write for myself, for @spunkybean.com, for clients, and other random stuff. I wrote random articles on a variety of topics through a site looking for website content. I wrote two books. Two. Books. Dammit. I’m not the best writer in the world, but if you give me an hour, I’ll churn something out.

I miss the “old me” who would get home from bowling on a Thursday night and then make 30 or 40 containers of salsa and sell it all weekend. It gave me some nice walking-around cash. I miss creating and telling stories.

I think my happiness level would increase if I got back to doing some of these other things.

Oh, and I used to run 5Ks and train for triathlons. Really. I did stuff like that. Now, I do nothing like that.

Sure. I coach two of my children’s soccer teams, and the three kids and their activities keep me busier than I was 4 or 5 years ago, but I still feel like I’m making excuses when I don’t do my “side hustle.”

What’s a “side hustle?” It’s something the great Gary Vaynerchuk talks about when you have a full time job and a dream. The “dream” is your “side hustle.” He also has great thoughts about actual “hustle.” I can’t find his definitive blog post on “side hustle”, but essentially it’s respecting that 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., but your “side hustle” is that passion project you do from 5:00 p.m. until midnight when you can’t go on another minute, and then you go to sleep for 6.5 hours, wake up, and start the “hustle” over again.

So? The question for myself, and maybe you, is what is that thing you always dreamed about?